Why the huge increase in the price of Sonus Farber Amanti G5 speakers.

Without a doubt the Covid thing opened the door to price gouging. There was disruptions in all areas but many opportunistic gouging mother ……s were born. Covid is long gone few if any reversed their excessive charges. SF is no different except in my opinion they weren’t worth the money in the first place. Outside the Uber pretty woodwork the sound quality was achieved by many for far less. Outside of pompous bragging rights for a select view there isn’t an endless list of younger folks willing to drop the coin for priceless end tables. Enter the reason for company selling in the first place, make the product develop a following watch the market and get out before the pendulum swings away. Companies like Bose control the market if they own the line share, not really caring about the old farts that bran boast. 

@1971gto455ho 

You sure are cynical. 

While there are a few companies that attempt and get away with charging "excessive" prices for their products, they are far between. Certainly not in tiny markets in highly discretionary markets. If folks don’t think the speakers are worth it, then they don’t buy them. Also, folks buying speakers in the $30K - $100k range are smarter than the average population, not dumber. 

I would think it more likely that a marketing person(s) from Sonus Faber / Bose did a complete analysis of the SF product lines and of the competitions. Considered the sonic characteristics, craftsmanship, global demographics, production costs and forecasted costs, and probably the Bose guidelines for profitability. They would have got together the COO, CFO, VP of Sales... probably the entire executive staff. The marketing team would have spent several hours explaining their findings and recommendations. The VP of Sales would complain endlessly about how they would not longer be able to sell the volumes they had committed to in the annual plan with these price increases. Everyone would look to purchasing to get long term contracts on raw materials to stabilize the material input costs. Anyway, I can go on and on. This is how it works. A huge amount of research and heated discussion by very savvy people trying to make sure they stay in business and make some money. 

Price gouging only works with commodities that are mandatory. Health care, food, water, power. 

@ghdprentice 

Cynical ? Certainly you’re not suggesting people that choose not to purchase a product are dumb. I would think a hearing preference would play a role, whether having the funds or not is a moot point. I am sure that selling a company does require the input from many but I’m also sure that the sale such as SF was a lucrative deal, satisfying most. Price gouging only works with commodities that are mandatory ?? That would cut out a huge percentage of the supposedly smarter population, unless one lives in a bubble the evidence is everywhere. 

? What does some supposedly heartmelting story about Audio Research have to do with sonus famrber jacking up the rates on their speaker? 

That the product is different but the principle is the same?

@ghdprentice is the only person in this thread or anyone else on this forum who has the slightest clue about how things actually work.  Without profits businesses fold, private entities in niche markets especially. The biggest overhead in any business is labor and benefits. The people who build SF speakers are extremely skilled craftsmen that are for the most part impossible to replace. Perhaps you’d want them built by robots which after the initial investment and those costs were amortized over several years doing so, would make them cheaper and more profitable which would provide more individuals for the unemployment lines and more burden on their fellow taxpayers.

So many of you have this sense idealism and entitlement that only concerns your own wallets that inevitably results in a decline of your quality of life not to mention all of you who don’t want to pay for music appreciation in their local schools because they consider it a needless expense and they don’t want their taxes to go up. Remember crap rolls downhill!

You sure are cynical. 

While there are a few companies that attempt and get away with charging "excessive" prices for their products, they are far between. Certainly not in tiny markets in highly discretionary markets. If folks don’t think the speakers are worth it, then they don’t buy them. Also, folks buying speakers in the $30K - $100k range are smarter than the average population, not dumber. 

I would think it more likely that a marketing person(s) from Sonus Faber / Bose did a complete analysis of the SF product lines and of the competitions. Considered the sonic characteristics, craftsmanship, global demographics, production costs and forecasted costs, and probably the Bose guidelines for profitability. They would have got together the COO, CFO, VP of Sales... probably the entire executive staff. The marketing team would have spent several hours explaining their findings and recommendations. The VP of Sales would complain endlessly about how they would not longer be able to sell the volumes they had committed to in the annual plan with these price increases. Everyone would look to purchasing to get long term contracts on raw materials to stabilize the material input costs. Anyway, I can go on and on. This is how it works. A huge amount of research and heated discussion by very savvy people trying to make sure they stay in business and make some money. 

Price gouging only works with commodities that are mandatory. Health care, food, water, power. 

 

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